The Upper Falls News is an email newsletter about what's going on in our village.  The Upper Falls News is brought to you by the Upper Falls Area Council but it's intended to cover any and all news in the village. 

Where am I? - Here's a photo of a spot in Upper Falls without its surrounding context.  The game is to look at the photo and identify where in Upper Falls you can this walkway lined with beautiful spring flowers (answer below).
 

Time to Lend a Hand - Last week's Hemlock Gorge spring cleanup was postponed to this Saturday, April 27. Meet at the Hamilton Place parking lot any time between 9AM - 10AM.  Help clean up the park and you'll be treated to a free lunch courtesy of Dunn-Gaherin's restaurant.

The next day, Sunday April 28, is NewtonSERVES day.  NewtonSERVES is an annual day of volunteer activities across the city.  We've got two NewtonSERVES projects going on in Upper Falls.  Alderman Deb Crossley will lead a cleanup of the Martin and Barney Conservation areas, the two pocket parks on Circuit Ave (9 AM at Elliot St & Circuit Ave).  Also on that same day, there will be a cleanup of the future Upper Falls Greenway (9 AM at The Depot - Chestnut & Oak Streets).  Come on out and help spruce up the neighborhood.  To sign up as a volunteer for either project click here.

Behind the Scenes - While hundreds of NewtonSERVES volunteers fan out across the city on Sunday to do the heavy lifting, Upper Falls resident Jeannie Smith will be behind the scenes helping to keep the NewtonSERVES wheels turning smoothly.  Jeannie works at the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs and is on the NewtonSERVES Planning Commitee.

Our Own School - In recent months, a neighborhood movement has begun to take shape to try to convince the city to build a new elementary school in Upper Falls.  With the school population on the rise, the city needs to plan for expanding the elementary schools.  The current, very preliminary, plan is to add new capacity by doing a major expansion of the Zervas School.  An alternative solution would be to build a new elementary school here in Upper Falls.   Tomorrow night (Thurs 4/25), there will be a meeting at 7 PM at the Emerson Community Center to discuss how to move this idea forward.  If you're interested in seeing Upper Falls have its own school once again, come to the meeting hosted by the Upper Falls Area Council's School Subcommittee.

You Can Take the Man Out of the Falls - but you can't take the Falls out of the man.  The Upper Falls News has over 400 subscribers and new ones trickle in all the time.  Most of those subscribers are your neighbors but occasionally someone from far afield subscribes.  Last week, we added a new reader in New Mexico.  Allen Downs writes "I grew up at 34 High St - kindergarten thru 11th Grade at the Emerson, then Day Jr High (My father was a teacher at Weeks), then Newton High, then moved to Needham but commuted to Newton South High from Needham.  Upper Falls is in my bones.  My brother Dave Downs told me about the Upper Falls News. Thanks for keeping me in touch."   Welcome Allen.  It's good to hear that there are a few Upper Falls bones out there in New Mexico.

Can't Sell That Memory on eBay - Another new subscriber, Larry Smith, shared his own wonderful Upper Falls story.  "Years ago, when I was about 9 or 10, me and a couple of buddies took a new baseball to see if we could get Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox (considered the greatest hitter of all time) to sign the ball for us. Ted Williams lived on Lucille Place off Route 9 and just a block up from High Street.

We rang his doorbell and he came to the door carrying his baby daughter who was crying because we had woke her up and Ted was quite mad at us. We handed him the ball which he grabbed in anger. We said Mr. Williams could you sign it for us. He said come back next Saturday and then slammed the door on us.  We weren’t sure whether we should come back or not but we did.  We rang the bell again and he came to the door with the ball in hand and SIGNED. He was nice and friendly this time and we went away thrilled to have the ball signed.  But, rather than save this now valuable signed baseball, we used it playing ball at the Emerson Playground the following week which discolored the ball and his signature and made the ball no longer a prized possession."

Did You Know ... the Hawaiian alphabet has only 12 letters?  For more details, listen to the Hawaiian Alphabet Song.  "Did you know ..." features an interesting and random fact every issue, collected by ten-year-old Upper Falls resident Jayla Reilly.

Send Us Your News - If you have any upcoming events, activities, news, trivia, stories, anecdotes or jokes related to Upper Falls just send them to news@UpperFallsNews.org and we'll include them in the next newsletter.  For those who prefer living in the past, back issues of the Upper Falls News are archived at UpperFallsNews.org.

'Where Am I" Answer - The spring flowers are on the front walkway of the house at 71 High St (at Winter St).  Those early bursts of purple were one of the first signs in the neighborhood that spring really had arrived.